Nearly 48 million Americans, including 22 million children, will begin to see their food assistance benefits cut today as a temporary boost to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) ends. This benefit cut will significantly affect low-income …

Thousands of veterans in every state will be among the nearly 48 million people who now participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and who will experience a benefit cut as the 2009 Recovery Act’s temporary benefit boost ends on November 1, according to a new Center on Budget and Policy Priorities …

Low-income programs are not driving the nation’s long-term fiscal problems, contrary to the impression that a narrow look at federal spending during the Great Recession might leave.[1] In fact, virtually all of the recent growth in spending for low-income programs is due to two factors: (1) the economic downturn and (2) …

The 2009 Recovery Act’s temporary boost in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits ends on November 1, 2013, which will mean a benefit cut for nearly all of the nearly 48 million SNAP recipients — 87 percent of whom live in households with children, seniors, or people with disabilities.[1] House …

Washington, D.C. – October 1, 2013 – Community Eligibility, a successful new federal option that allows schools in high-poverty areas to serve meals at no charge to help reduce hunger and streamline their school meal programs, is resulting in more children eating school meals in participating states, according to Community Eligibility: Making …

Executive Summary
“Community eligibility” is a powerful new tool to ensure that low-income children in high-poverty neighborhoods have access to healthy meals at school. Established in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, the option allows schools in high-poverty areas …

The economic recovery has yet to produce significant gains for Americans in the bottom and middle of the economic scale, Census Bureau data released this week show. The poverty rate remained unchanged at a high 15.0 percent in 2012 and median household income remained unchanged at $51,017, some $4,600 below its 2007 level. Income …

The House’s passage today of the Republican leadership’s bill to cut SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) by almost $40 billion over the next decade marks a new low for an already dysfunctional Congress. It would increase hunger and hardship all across our country.
By cutting food assistance for …

The new Census figures demonstrate that the painfully slow and uneven economic recovery has yet to produce significant gains for Americans in the bottom and middle of the economic scale, with the poverty rate remaining unchanged at a high 15.0 percent in 2012 — the 11th year in the last 12 …

Over the years, some policymakers who have sought deep cuts in eligibility and assistance in programs for low-income families have tried to make their plans seem inherently reasonable by camouflaging them through the use of benign verbiage — portraying them, for instance, as efforts to …

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) introduced legislation on September 16 setting forth the House Republican leadership’s proposal to cut SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the food stamp program) by at least $39 billion over ten years. This is almost double the cut in the …

With the Census Bureau due to release updated figures about poverty in America on September 17, some policymakers and commentators surely will compare today’s poverty rate to those of 1960s and conclude that the last half-century of federal efforts to alleviate poverty have largely failed — that, as some critics put it glibly, …

Now that Congress has returned from the summer recess, it will have to set funding levels for discretionary programs for fiscal year 2014 (or risk a government shutdown) and raise the debt ceiling (or see the nation default on legally binding financial obligations). In both areas, the House and Senate are far apart.
House …

Some 17.6 million households, with 49 million people, lacked access to adequate food at some point in 2012 because they didn’t have enough money or other resources to meet their basic food needs, according to today’s release from the U.S. Agriculture Department. These figures on …

In a new version of its report from 1995, the Cato Institute claims, “[t]he current welfare system provides such a high level of benefits that it acts as a disincentive for work.” Cato’s analysis has several fatal flaws, rendering its conclusions meaningless.
The report lumps together a set of safety net programs …

Shortly before Congress adjourned for its August recess, House Republican leaders disclosed that they plan to move a bill in September that cuts SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the food stamp program) by about $40 billion over ten years — double the cut in the House Agriculture Committee farm bill …

Shortly before Congress adjourned for its August recess, House Republican leaders disclosed that they plan to move a bill in early September that doubles — to $40 billion over ten years — their proposed cuts to SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps) and immediately cuts 2-4 million more …

The 2009 Recovery Act’s temporary boost to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits is scheduled to end on November 1, 2013, resulting in a benefit cut for nearly every SNAP household.[2] For families of three, the cut will be $29 a month — a total of $319 for November 2013 through September 2014, the …

All of the more than 47 million Americans, including 22 million children, who receive food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) will see their benefits cut this fall, according to new data that the U.S. Department of Agriculture released today and discussed in a new report from the Washington, DC-based …

Since the Great Depression, the United States has developed a set of supports to help low-income families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities make ends meet and obtain health care. Extensive research indicates that these supports lift millions of Americans out of poverty, help “make work pay” by supplementing low …

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the food stamp program) historically has been the most responsive federal program after unemployment insurance in assisting families and communities during economic downturns. The recent downturn was no exception. While SNAP enrollment …

The farm bill that the House defeated on June 20 included a provision, offered by Rep. Steve Southerland (R-FL), that would make harsh, unprecedented changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s primary weapon against hunger.[1] These changes came on top of provisions already in the bill that would …

The House wisely rejected a farm bill today that included an unprecedented provision, added earlier in the day, to reward governors with large sums of unrestricted cash if they remove families from the SNAP (food stamp) program because the parents, through no fault of their own, cannot find jobs.
As I explained in a blog earlier today, this extreme provision would allow states to terminate benefits to households where adults — including …

The Senate immigration reform bill establishes a long and difficult path to legal status that includes substantial fees and fines and tough restrictions on eligibility for federal assistance for immigrants who newly convert to a legal status. Yet, there will be efforts on the Senate floor to make it considerably more difficult for …

On May 15, the House Agriculture Committee passed its 2013 farm bill, H.R. 1947 (the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, or FARRM).[1] The bill would cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) by almost $21 billion over the next decade, eliminating food …

WIC — the highly effective nutrition program that serves roughly 9 million low-income women and children — has been battered by funding uncertainty for the last six months as Congress grappled with how to accomplish deficit reduction over the coming decade. The WIC funding level recently enacted for the remainder of the …

Below is a compilation of the CBPP analyses and blog posts on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget, which the House has passed.
Overview/General
Statement: Robert Greenstein, President, on Chairman Ryan’s Budget Plan
March 12, 2013
“When House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan released his previous budget last …

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan justifies the massive cuts he proposes in programs for low- and moderate-income Americans in part by claiming that the current safety net “can create a powerful disincentive to get ahead.”[1] He uses this argument to defend converting both Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition …

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan includes cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) of $135 billion — almost 18 percent — over the next ten years (2014-2023),[1] which would necessitate ending assistance for millions of low-income families, …

We recently updated the percentage, below, from 66 to 72 percent, and the cuts, below, from $3.3 trillion to $3.1 trillion— and that’s because we updated our budget baseline primarily to assume that the sequestration budget cuts remain in effect.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget plan would get at least 66 percent of its …

The budget that Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray released yesterday stands in sharp contrast to the one that her House counterpart, Paul Ryan, released on Tuesday. As I wrote Tuesday, his budget is extreme.[1] Hers is more balanced and appropriate to meet the nation’s economic and fiscal challenges. The …

When House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan released his previous budget last year, I wrote that for most of the past half century, its extreme nature would have put it outside the bounds of mainstream discussion. It was, I wrote, “Robin Hood in reverse — on …

Executive Summary
With President Obama and lawmakers of both parties vowing to achieve further deficit reduction, the stakes are high for low- and moderate-income Americans. If policymakers heavily target programs that serve vulnerable Americans, they will run the risk of increasing poverty and hardship and reducing opportunity for …

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP — formerly the Food Stamp Program) is the cornerstone of the nation’s safety net and nutrition assistance programs. It currently provides over 47 million participants in about 23 million low-income households with debit cards they can use to purchase food each month.…

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Finance Committee, I appreciate the invitation to testify here today. As we all know, the nation faces fiscal and economic challenges, and we will have to make some tough decisions to put the budget on a more sustainable fiscal course and to do so without hindering a still-too-weak economic …

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) recently posted to the Senate Budget Committee website a document that implies that programs targeted to low-income people provide lavish benefits that raise the typical poor household’s standard-of-living above that of the typical middle-income household.[1] The Sessions release, however, is deeply …

I appreciate the invitation to testify today on the impact of federal budget decisions on families and communities. This is an important matter. As you know, the nation will have to make tough decisions to put the budget on a more sustainable fiscal course. The issue is not only whether policymakers act to secure adequate …

Nicholas Kristof published an important column in the New York Times recently about young children in some poor communities who face greatly diminished opportunities by the time they’re just 2 years old.[1] “Many low-income children never reach the starting line,” he notes.
Kristof points out that there are no magic …

Executive Summary
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s (SNAP) primary purpose is to increase the food purchasing power of eligible low-income households in order to improve their nutrition and alleviate hunger and malnutrition.[1] The program’s success in meeting this core goal has been well documented.[2] …

Since President Obama and Congress enacted the “fiscal cliff” budget deal, congressional Republican leaders have vowed not to raise a dollar more in taxes for deficit reduction. All further deficit reduction, they say, must come from budget cuts, primarily from entitlement programs. That, however, would spare the broad …

In recent days, policymakers, pundits, and the media have debated whether the “fiscal cliff” budget deal was a victory or defeat for the President or congressional Republicans, progressives or conservatives, rich or poor, the economy or the deficit — you name it. Most of the commentary is unpersuasive, however, for …